The relative impact of school‐wide positive behavior support on teachers’ perceptions of student behavior across schools,teachers, and students

School‐wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) is a systemic approach for implementing a proactive schoolwide discipline and for improving students’ academic and behavioral outcomes by targeting the school’s organizational and social culture. With a multilevel approach, the present study evaluates the relative effectiveness of SWPBS on teachers’ perceptions of the student behavior (N = 3,295) across schools, teachers, and children using a multilevel approach. We assessed teacher perception of student problem behavior five times during a 3‐year implementation of SWPBS in 23 Dutch schools. Multilevel analyses not only revealed a small increase in perceived prosocial behavior and a small decrease in problems with peers, but also different effects across children, teachers, and schools. Effects were stronger for girls and for students with higher severity of perceived problems at baseline. At teachers’ level, higher mean baseline severity of perceived problems was associated with the reduced impact of SWPBS on perceived emotional problems and problems with peers. At the school level, effects were stronger for regular schools as compared with special needs schools.     

Determinants of placement for sexually abused children

While conducting a prospective study of 100 sexually abused children, we found a much higher rate of out-of-home placement than has been previously described for child maltreatment. This study was designed to determine which factors were most influential in predicting the placement experiences of this cohort. The children, ages 6-17 years, were recently substantiated victims of intrafamilial sexual abuse whose parents or guardians permitted study involvement. We examined child and family demographics, abuse characteristics, and family response as possible determinants of immediate and later placement. At the initial assessment, within a few weeks of the disclosure, 50% of the children had already been removed. A follow-up assessment of 83 children two years later revealed that 73% had been removed from the abusing home. In a multivariate regression model, only maternal support of the child emerged as a significant predictor of immediate placement and placement over time. The offender's status as a resident in the child's home was an important predictor of immediate placement but was not significant as a predictor of all placements at any time. As maternal support is an important predictor of the need for placement, workers are encouraged to seek ways of enhancing maternal support as a means of reducing placement.     

The linguistic construction of expert identity in professor–student discussions of science

This study examines how participation in a verbal exchange during an inquiry-based classroom activity allows three college students and their science instructor to use linguistic signs (choices of words, grammatical structures, discursive structures, prosody and poetic discourse) to construct authority and expertise. Our work explores linguistic and interactional processes of identification (the dynamic construction and transaction of expert identity) and examines how discursive strategies adopted by the professor at different moments of the verbal exchange influence the students’ subsequent discursive practices and perceptions of authority. We adopt a dialogic, socio-constructivist perspective on identity, viewing personal identities as being partially constructed via interactional positioning. Our findings reveal that the attainment of expertise involves two different types of language-mediated processes: the transmission of a professional vision or intension and the emergence of a perception of agency among students. The former is centered on referential-denotative meanings of speech (elicitation of standard account and operational definition) while the latter requires effective use of pragmatic–performative functions of speech (non-evaluative and more than minimal recipient practices). Consideration is given to the need for science instructors to be able to utilize pragmatic functions of language strategically to encourage students to position themselves within the identity of science expertise.     

Comparing Union and Nonunion Staff Perceptions of the Higher Education Work Environment

Evidence of substantial growth in unionization among university noninstructional staff over the past 20 years (Hurd and Woodhead, 1987) and the emergence of a quality movement in higher education linking employee attitudes toward the work environment with increased productivity point to the need for additional research into union and nonunion staff perceptions of the work environment. This paper describes a conceptually oriented, exploratory study of the university work environment as perceived and defined by union and nonunion noninstructional staff.     

Children's attitudes towards disability: A review and analysis of the literature

A first step towards the design and implementation of a successful mainstreaming program requires a careful examination of two key issues. First, what are children's attitudes towards disability, and second, what are the critical elements involved in facilitating attitude change? This paper examines the current research literature on children's attitudes towards disability and programs aimed at attitude change. The review culminates in a synthesis of the key themes and issues involved and provides a foundation for further study.